for the love of food

Asparagus Risotto

– Italian cuisine-

I love risotto. To me it’s the perfect dish for those days where I don’t feel like eating pasta – in my case that would be again pasta – or the regular Belgian potato. Risotto doesn’t require high kitchen skills, but a good amount of patience is not a luxury. This is not a meal to prepare when you want food on the table fast, or when you have 13 items on your to-do-while-cooking list. Give risotto the time and patience it deserves and you’ll be rewarded with great taste. The number of possible combinations with risotto is almost endless. Today’s choice landed on asparagus. The season is coming to its end, so why not enjoy the last bits of it.

Clean the asparagus (tip: for white asparagus you need to remove the skin, but not for the green asparagus since it has a soft skin) and boil al dente (5-8 minutes depending on asparagus size). Cut the asparagus tops and put aside. Chop the rest of asparagus into pieces. Shortly sauté in butter and season with salt & pepper.

Boil the vegetable stock.

Chop the onion and fry in a good amount of oil (about 3 table spoons) and some butter and leave to simmer on low heat for about 5 minutes while stirring now and then. Add the risotto and stir well while getting the heat up to medium-high level. Once risotto has become translucent by the oil, add the asparagus pieces (not yet the tops) and start adding the vegetable stock. This is where you need your patience on the table. You should add the stock in very small portions (about one sauce spoon at a time) and make sure each time the fluid is absorbed well before adding some more. Don’t test your luck by adding all at once, unless your aiming for a sticky mass without any structure. Depending on the type of risotto you use, this process of adding stock can take up to 20-25 minutes. Remember to continue stirring!

Add the asparagus tops at the very end to keep them crispy and serve with roughly grated parmezan.

Asparagus risotto is a good match for different types of fish, or also meat. I combined with pork, seasoned with pepper & sea salt, balsamico vinegar and sugar.